Researching CPR Success Rates Versus Perceptions

A double major in biomedical ethics and neuroscience, Jessica Merkel-Keller '04 examined life- and-death issues at Lehigh Valley Hospital Center this summer. She studied the success rates of hospital-performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, patient and family perceptions of CPR, and physician training in CPR as an EXCEL Scholar with Stephen Lammers, Helen H.P. Manson Professor of the English Bible.

In addition to working with hospital biostatisticians, she joined Lammers in Institutional Review Board meetings, ethics committee work, and bioethics consultations. One discovery was that web sites portray CPR in a far more favorable light than what survival rates indicate.

"Our goal was to help health-care providers and families make informed decisions on whether to issue 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders," she says. "One of the biggest issues in health care is what our realistic expectations should be of our technology."

For the last four years, Merkel-Keller has been an emergency medical technician (EMT) with the Easton Emergency Squad. On duty at least once a week, when she spends 12 to 20 hours on call, she knows firsthand what it is like to see the victims of drownings, electrocutions, gunshots, stabbings, fatal falls, and other dire medical emergencies.

"It's stressful being an EMT and going to a hospital, seeing sick and dying patients," she admits. "I've seen some horrible stuff."

A skilled sculptor, Merkel-Keller says that working with modern ceramics allows her to escape the heart-rending pressures of medicine. She also is resident adviser at Pi Phi sorority.